Oracle was the first top-tier IT vendor to announce it was putting its key product - the database - on Linux. The logic was simple: Linux freed Oracle from depending on a single company for operating system - that company was Microsoft.

Teenagers are often berated for their pimply faces, indolence and bolshiness, but they’re tomorrow’s gadget buyers. And according to a recently published survey, they’re no longer so bovvered by Nokia mobile phones.

ReviewAcer made a significant impact on the netbook market last year with its hugely popular Aspire One A110. It recently released a selection of new netbooks in its Aspire One range, and the D250 we have here is bizarrely similar to the D150, which was only launched a couple of months ago.

Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Barratt will tomorrow venture outside the International Space Station to prep the Pirs docking module for the arrival of the Russian Mini-Research Module 2.

The US Missile Defence Agency's long awaited blaster-cannon-in-a-jumbo-jet, the Airborne Laser (ABL), is now carrying out inflight test zappings. Reports suggest that the actual laser is doing well so far, but that the carrying 747 is suffering technical problems having been grounded for a lengthy period while its energy weapon was fitted.

Leccy TechNorth American e-car firm Miles Electric Vehicles has finally unveiled its first motor - the Coda EV saloon. Or, to be exact, it's rebranded itself Coda Automotive and named its first car after itself.

A raft of modern scientific tests has revealed the contents of the first "witch bottle" discovered with its cork intact - a late 17th-century vessel buried by the owner's front door and designed to thwart the evil intentions of ill-wishers.

ReviewTaiwan's HTC is currently doing very well with its Touch series handsets and it's been no secret that O2's very similar XDA range of Windows Mobile phones are actually made by the same company. Indeed, the O2 XDA Guide is very similar to the Touch Cruise, with the focus firmly on satnav and A-GPS, but also incorporating a 2.8in touch screen, 3.2Mp camera, HSDPA 3G and Wi-Fi.

The makers of the Terrafugia Transition - the closest thing to a flying car yet built - say that flight testing of the initial "proof of concept" vehicle is now complete, and that the Transition has been shown to be a viable proposition. Terrafugia will now build a "beta test prototype", incorporating lessons learned by the first phase of flight tests. First customer deliveries are now expected in 2011.

CommentThere aren't any fresh similes left to describe what's happening to New Labour, but it's safe to say it's looking more than a little peaky. A crucial few days lie ahead, and in a week the political landscape is going to look very different.

"This is a lawsuit, not a career, Mr. Coppolino," a rather exasperated Judge Vaughn Walker explained in court today, chiding the lead counsel for the Justice Department, Anthony Coppolino, as Mr. Coppolino's stony-faced counterpart from the National Security Agency, Timothy Stinson, sat silently at his side. Why obey court orders to address discovery coordination, when obstruction and delay are so productive?

Medics in Florida are trying out a so-called "breathalyser for the hands" system which sounds the alarm if they try to approach a patient without having washed recently enough. The HyGreen technology is intended to block the spread of so-called "superbugs", commonly found in hospitals.

Rumours about which features may be added to the third-generation iPhone appear on an almost daily basis, making them very hard to remember. So one iPhone fanatic’s put them all together into a single image.

Like to sing along to something as you cook dinner? Know this - the humble kitchen radio is about to be obliterated by the mighty Media Phone, with embedded specialist Arc bidding to become its default platform.

Videogames development trade organisation Tiga has renewed its call for the UK government to support the industry with tax credits, following an HSBC report which identified several UK “gaming hotspots”.

Federal authorities have shut down what they said was the worst US-based web hosting provider after convincing a judge it actively participated in the distribution of child pornography, spam, malware, and other net-based menaces.

Yes, Google is using the same tracking cookie across both its AdSense and DoubleClick online ad contraptions. This allows the Mountain View ad giant to collect your surfing habits as you move from AdSense partner sites to sites using DoubleClick's ad management platform - although the company indicates that at least in some cases, the data is not combined.

Servers, and especially volume x64 machines, are by and large sold not by the companies whose brands are on the boxes, but by a handful of master distributors who in turn sell them to legions of resellers that actually do the peddling to IT shops. And if Cisco Systems wants to get into the x64 server racket, it is going to need channel partners who can walk the server walk as well as they talk the network talk.

Microsoft and Paltalk - self-described as "the leading real-time, video-based community" - have settled their patent dispute, with Microsoft entering into a licensing agreement with Paltalk for the patents in question.